The majority of Americans did not pledge allegiance to some rotten post-American country. The majority stayed home. And that is damning, but it's also comforting because these are the people we have to win over. They don't believe in Obama, but they don't believe in us either. They don't believe in politics because it isn't relevant to their lives."

As the days have passed since the election in November, I am less and less clear on our prospects for a better future.

I certainly don't rule it out.

I know that the second term of this O Man will be over and done with before we know it. I know that, notwithstanding the ominous readings of the pundits, he will not do as much harm as they fear he will - not that, by his incompetence if nothing else, he won't give it his best, which is to say his worst - and what harm he does do will be the product of determined over-reach, which should, along the way, make it easier to upend and reverse many if not most of what he and his acolytes will believe to be his accomplishments.

If, indeed, a significant number of people will have, by then, concluded that politics are, or should be, irrelevant to them in their day-to-day lives, I will be content at the end of my days, and I will depart this world bemused if not amused by it and those who will live after me.